Category: Sophie Calle

To the casual observer, Sophie Calle’s artwork might seem on the surface, unassuming, even uninteresting; those documentary style photographs and their clinical, matter-of-fact descriptions are devoid of ‘wow-ness’ or visual stimulation demanded by most present-day casual art viewers, and belie the philosophical meaning and social commentaries contained within. This paradoxical nature is present in all her projects and indeed most of her life; what seems unassuming, is in fact meaningful, what seems blind is in fact quite visionary. The essence is in the language and syntax.

With a deep rooted resistance to conformity, she did what most would consider absurd, unthinkable and definitely ‘foolish’; she opened up her own private bedroom for strangers to come and sleep in, The Sleepers / Les Dormeurs (1979) , and started following and photographing people on the street, Suite Venitienne (1980).